Dealing with data, IT bottlenecks and lack of time for optimization are among the challenges which cause the biggest headaches for marketers, but the reality in the customer-driven economy is that many products and services are rolled out without being fully thought through – this realization generates company “pain points”. ExoConsultancy Marketing Pain Points report assigns a “migraine rating” to 17 different pain points in the IT world. “Digital technology and changing consumer behavior have created a near infinite number of opportunities for marketers to reach and engage customers, while also creating a whole host of new problems for marketing teams to wrestle with. ”
The 10 pain points with the highest migraine ratings are:
- IT and web development teams are a major bottleneck.’ 54%
- There is no time to test and optimize campaigns.’ 47%
- ‘I’ve wanted a single customer view, but failed to give the time, budget or IT resources to build one.’ 42%
- ‘I can’t keep track of customers across different channels and on different devices.’ 41%
- ‘I don’t have enough budget / my budget is decreasing.’ 41%
- ‘I’m struggling with multiple data sources.’ 40%
- ‘I have trouble defining attribution and assessing the touchpoints required to convert a customer.’ 40%
- ‘I struggle to prove the ROI of marketing activities.’ 39%
- ‘I’m in a battle to keep up with marketing technology.’ 33%
- ‘Finding marketers with the right skills is a nightmare.’ 30%
But let’s look at one techno case study (PWC, for one has a long list here):
The Matrix PowerWatch (at $170 retail) is powered by thermoelectric energy, or the conversion of heat into power. FoxTech explains that, “the idea is to eliminate what Akram Boukai, the co-founder and CEO of Matrix Industries (Menlo Park, CA), called a “pain point” in the wearables industry: the fact that if you own an Apple Watch or a Fitbit or something like it, you need to charge it by taking it off. As soon as you take it off, there’s a barrier to put it back on.” Boukai runs the Laboratory of Innovative Green Energy Research at the University of Michigan and has already raised $350K on Indiegogo with this pitch: “powered by your body heat, it measures calories burned, activity level, and sleep using our advanced thermoelectric technology.”
The term “thermoelectric effect” (explains Wiki) encompasses three separately identified effects: derived from the independent discoveries of French physicist Jean Charles Athanase Peltier and Baltic German physicist Thomas Johann Seebeck. Joule heating, the heat that is generated whenever a current is passed through a resistive material, is related, though it is not generally termed as thermoelectric effect. The Peltier–Seebeck and Thomson effects are thermodynamically reversible, whereas Joule heating is not.
Picture Credit: Matrix Industries
The watch is really just part of a new DevOps field called Enterprise Mobility Management (more from IAI later). Software Development Times (free subscription here) reports that app development is an issue for these devices, even though Arrow Electronics Solution Products is a partner of Matrix Industries. “New devices (such as wearables) and architectures (such as the Internet of Things) are creating opportunities for businesses and innovation points for developers. But they are also creating new and severe headaches. According to a recently released report, 65% of developers and 69% of designers feel wearables and connected devices are already a problem, or will be one in the next year.” The report, “Wearables and Connected Devices: The Next Frontier in Cross-Platform Mobile Development,” was released by enterprise mobility solution provider Kony which offers a free e-Book for enterprise mobility strategy advice here.
Picture Credit: Software Development Times (www.sdtimes.com)
IDEAS ABOUT INNOVATION! 